Patriots’ Ridley On GameDay: ‘Hold Myself To Very High Expectations’

Related Tags:

Football

BOSTON (CBS) – The 2012 season was a breakout one for Patriots running back Stevan Ridley, who in his second year in the league rushed for 1,263 yards and 12 touchdowns.

Now entering his third NFL season, Ridley will look to become the first rusher to record back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons under head coach Bill Belichick.

But ask him about that stat, and Ridley doesn’t want to focus on personal goals. In true Patriot-fashion, it’s always about the team.

“I just say they’re going to put me in a position to go out there and make some great runs,” he told WBZ-TV’s Steve Burton in an interview that will air in Sunday’s edition of Patriots GameDay. “If I set my goals too high I’ll be disappointed because I fall short, and I don’t want to set them too low and get complacent. I try to focus on every game, just dominate that game. If I can do that, there are great results that come from that.”

“There’s a lot of pressure I put on myself; I don’t worry about what other people say or what they think or expectations they have because I hold myself to very high expectations,” he said. “I want to go out and be a strong-point to this team. I don’t want it to be a one-year thing, because a lot of people hit it on the head and do great for one year but fall off after that. You look at Brady, he’s been consistent for a long time, and that’s why he is a great.”

To help guide him to success in the NFL, Ridley is using some words of wisdom he received from a former Patriots great that just hung up the cleats prior to last year.

“For me, the way [Kevin] Faulk told me to do it when he did it up here for 13 years, was take it one game at a time — week to week and not get too far ahead of myself,” said Ridley. “I’m going to keep running hard and try to go out there and get it.”

Be sure to tune in to Ridley’s full 1-on-1, where he takes us inside his interesting fashion, on Patriots GameDay at 11:30 a.m. Sunday morning on WBZ-TV!